Colorado Judge: Religious Groups Not Second Class

November 10th, 2010

On October 28, 2010, Colorado District Judge Mullins rejected an atheist group’s attempt to relegate religious groups to second class status. The National Day of Prayer Task Force (“NDPTF”), led by Shirley Dobson, has asked state governors for many years to issue a proclamation acknowledging the annual National Day of Prayer. Colorado, like most states, allows any group to request such a proclamation from the governor, and suggest language for it. For instance, the Colorado Governor has issued proclamations for groups supporting the Turks and Armenians.

But a radical athiest group from Wisconsin thinks groups like the NDPTF shouldn’t have the same access to this opportunity because they are religious. So they sued Governor Ritter, and asked the Colorado District Court to enter an order prohibiting prayer proclamations in the future. The plaintiffs claimed the prayer proclamations violated two provisions of the Colorado Constitution: (1) “no person shall be denied any civil or political right, privilege or capacity, on account of his opinions concerning religion,” and (2) “[n]or shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship.” the rest

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